Handel was and is one of the most famous composers of the baroque era, and
the only one whose music was still performed after his death. In modern times
he has had to compete with others, like Bach and Telemann. But his music still
belongs amongst the most frequently performed. His oratorios have always enjoyed
great popularity, and in recent decades the largest part of his operatic oeuvre
has been rediscovered as well. His orchestral and chamber music regularly
appear on concert programmes and on disc. There is one part of his oeuvre
which is severely underexposed: his music for keyboard. Whereas the keyboard
works of the likes of Frescobaldi, Froberger, Bach, Haydn and Mozart have
been recorded completely, only once has a complete recording of Handel's keyboard
music been released. From 1979 to 1981 the German harpsichordist and organist
Edgar Krapp recorded his keyboard oeuvre on the German label Eurodisc. As
far as I know these have never been released on CD.

There are several reasons for this relative neglect. The other parts of Handel's
output are so voluminous and of such splendid quality that his keyboard music
is almost doomed to remain in the shadow. Another reason is the problems regarding
authenticity. This sounds quite familiar as his chamber music causes many
problems in this regard as well. Handel's popularity is the main reason. Publishers,
in particular John Walsh, were all too keen to take profit from the large
demand for Handel's music and printed editions which were anything but reliable.
This was the main reason Handel requested a Royal Privilege which gave him
the monopoly of the publication of his own works for 14 years. That was in
1720. The first fruit of this monopoly was the printing of the eight harpsichord
suites from which three are played here by Cristiano Holtz. Their established
authenticity is the main reason they belong among his most frequently performed
and recorded keyboard works.

Even so, their date of composition remains unclear and this has kept Handel
scholars busy. It is generally assumed that these suites are compilations
of pieces composed during various stages of Handel's career, most of them
probably dating from before his stay in Italy. In these suites Handel never
exactly adheres to the then common structure of the keyboard suite with its
sequence of allemande, courante, sarabande and gigue. Five of them begin with
a prelude, the others with an allegro, an adagio and an overture respectively.
The number of movements varies: the Suite No. 8 has five, the Suites 3 and
7 have six. Handel incorporates elements of the Italian sonata da chiesa,
as in the Suite No. 3 which includes an allegro and ends with a presto. There
are French elements in the Suite No. 3 - the air - and in the Suite No. 7
which ends with a passacaille. The German tradition is represented as well:
the first two movements of the Suite No. 8 take the form of a prelude and
fugue.

Despite Handel's announcement that he was planning to publish more keyboard
works this never happened. The only other collection was not authenticated
by the composer and published by John Walsh in 1733. The tracklist gives 1727
instead. I wonder where they got that date from.

This set contains seven suites and two chaconnes. Like the collection of 1720
it is a compilation of existing material. But as there are very few autographs
of Handel's keyboard works and the existing autographs are undated it is impossible
to decide exactly when they were written. From this collection we hear the
Suite No. 5 which has only three movements: an allemand, a saraband and a
unusually long jigg. The track-list gives HWV 438/3b which suggests that a
version other than the usual is used. The liner-notes don't give any information
about this. Also included is a Minuet in g minor which is presented
as a movement from the Suite No. 1 from this set. But according to the compositional
catalogue on Handel.org this minuet
doesn't belong to the suite; it is catalogued there as HWV 434/4.

The programme is rounded off with two of the large number of independent keyboard
pieces which have come down to us under the name of Handel.

Cristiano Holtz was born in Brazil, began to study the harpsichord at the
age of 12 and later studied with, among others, Gustav Leonhardt. In 2006
he recorded suites by Johann Mattheson, who was Handel's colleague at the
Hamburg opera before he went to Italy. His technique is impeccable and he
deals impressively with the sometimes demanding pieces. Here and there he
adds some ornamentation, but on the whole I believe he is too conservative
in this respect. It is an established fact that Handel was a great virtuoso
and was especially famous for his improvisatory skills. Therefore there can
be little doubt that the keyboard works are merely sketches of what Handel
used to play. That means that the modern performer has to do a lot to give
some idea of how Handel probably played them. And Holtz doesn't do that. He
just takes too little freedom in his interpretation.

There is another issue which bothers me. Holtz plays a replica of a harpsichord
which was built by Christian Zell and Johann Christoph Fleischer in the first
half of the 18th century - the exact date is not mentioned. It is likely that
Handel's printed keyboard music was mostly played in England. That makes the
choice of a German harpsichord less plausible. This particular instrument
has four stops: 4', two 8' and a 16'. As far as I know only German harpsichord
builders constructed instruments with a 16' stop. And it is highly questionable
whether this kind of instrument was widely used considering that very few
of them have been preserved. Holtz uses this stop in some of the most virtuosic
pieces. These are quite noisy as it is, and the use of this stop makes them
even noisier, in particular as Holtz also couples the two manuals. Moreover
the noise goes at the cost of the flexibility and agility, and as a result
these pieces are rather ponderous. That is the case, for instance, in the
closing gigue of the Suite No. 8 in f minor and the passacaille which
ends the Suite No. 7 in g minor. There are other movements as well
where I sometimes find Holtz's playing a bit awkward and not as fluent as
one would wish.

All in all I have mixed feelings about this disc. It is admirable that Holtz
plays pieces by Handel, and that he has included some lesser-known examples.
There is much to enjoy in his playing, but the brilliance of Handel's music
isn't fully explored and the performances are hampered by the choice of the
harpsichord and the registration of some movements.